Systems and methods for inserting supplemental content into a quadrature amplitude modulation signal using existing bandwidth

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described herein for inserting supplemental content into a QAM signal. A unicast QAM signal between a server and a client device for delivery of content is established. The QAM signal has a particular frequency corresponding to the channel on which it will be transmitted to the client device. A request or other signal may be received from the client device requesting that supplemental content be inserted into the QAM signal. A portion of the bandwidth of the QAM signal is allocated for the supplemental content. The supplemental content is transcoded into a supplemental QAM signal in the particular frequency. The supplemental content may be packetized content such as internet protocol-based content and may be retrieved from a server or database. The supplemental QAM signal is then inserted into the unicast QAM signal using the allocated portion of the bandwidth.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/834,581, filed Mar. 30, 2020 (now allowed), which is herebyincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates to insertion of content into a quadratureamplitude modulation (QAM) signal and, in particular, insertion of thecontent utilizing the existing bandwidth of the channel in which the QAMsignal is transmitted.

SUMMARY

Cable television operators often face bandwidth constraints due toprotocol standards used in cable television transmission. Every channelin a cable television system is allocated a 6 MHz-wide portion of thetotal cable television frequency range, and content is encoded in a QAMsignal in the frequency of the particular channel. In order to providethe maximum amount of content to subscribers, cable television operatorsuse every available channel for either linear programming or on-demandprogramming. As cable television systems evolve, cable televisionoperators want to be able to offer additional features. For theseadditional features to be available to all subscribers, they must beaccessible using legacy equipment. This means that any additionalfeature must be transmitted to subscribers using one of the 6 MHzchannels, and not using over-the-top or internet-based infrastructure.However, the amount of bandwidth available to provide such features islimited.

Systems and methods are described herein for inserting supplementalcontent into a QAM signal. A unicast QAM signal between a server (e.g.,a cable television headend) and a client device (e.g., a set-top box)for delivery of content is established. The QAM signal has a particularfrequency corresponding to the channel on which it will be transmittedto the client device. A request or other signal may be received from theclient device requesting that supplemental content be inserted into theQAM signal. A portion of the bandwidth of the QAM signal is allocatedfor the supplemental content. The supplemental content is transcodedinto a supplemental QAM signal in the particular frequency. Thesupplemental content may be packetized content such as internetprotocol-based content and may be retrieved from a server or database.The supplemental QAM signal is then inserted into the unicast QAM signalusing the allocated portion of the bandwidth.

For example, the supplemental content may be an advertisement. Whileplaying back content received via the unicast QAM signal, such asvideo-on-demand content, the client device may identify an advertisementinsertion point in the content and request an advertisement to beinserted. The QAM encoding device serving the unicast QAM session maythen allocate a portion of bandwidth in the unicast QAM signal for theadvertisement to be inserted without disruption of the video-on-demandcontent.

To establish the unicast QAM signal, a request for content is receivedfrom the client device. The requested content is retrieved from acontent database and encoded as a QAM signal in the frequency of theunicast QAM signal. The QAM signal is then communicated from the serverto the client device.

A dedicated processing device may be used to transcode the packetizedsupplemental content into a supplemental QAM signal. For example, thepacketized supplemental content may be an IP-based advertisement. Thededicated processing device may be an ad pump which may be controlled byan ad session manager. A number of dedicated processing devices may beavailable to perform the transcoding. For example, a cable televisionheadend may house a pool of ad pumps for delivering multiple adssimultaneously to various client devices over various QAM signals. Insome cases, the available dedicated processing devices are identified,and a current workload of each device is determined. The dedicatedprocessing device whose current workload is less than that of everyother available dedicated processing device is then allocated to thetask of transcoding the supplemental content. In other cases, a servicegroup to which the client device belongs is identified and it isdetermined whether any of the available dedicated processing devices iscurrently serving that service group. If so, the particular dedicatedprocessing device currently serving the service group is allocated tothe task of transcoding the supplemental content.

Allocation of a portion of bandwidth of the QAM signal may be based on adetermination of an amount of bandwidth needed to accommodate thesupplemental content. In some cases, a total amount of bandwidth of theQAM signal is identified and an amount of bandwidth needed for deliveryof the content is determined. A number of programs currently beingtransmitted in the QAM signal are identified, and the amount ofbandwidth used by at least one of the programs is reduced. For example,the bitrate of the content may be lowered so that less bandwidth isrequired to transmit the content. If the amount by which the bandwidthused by the at least one program has been reduced is greater than orequal to the amount of bandwidth needed for delivery of the supplementalcontent, the amount of bandwidth needed for delivery of the supplementalcontent is allocated from the amount of bandwidth recovered from thereduction of bandwidth usage by the at least one program. If the amountby which the bandwidth used by the at least one program has been reducedis less than the amount of bandwidth needed for delivery of thesupplemental content, it may be determined whether the amount ofbandwidth needed for delivery of the supplemental content can be reducedto a second amount of bandwidth that is less than or equal to the amountby which the bandwidth used by the at least one program has beenreduced. If it can be reduced, the supplemental content is transcoded touse the second amount of bandwidth and the second, reduced amount ofbandwidth is allocated from the amount of bandwidth recovered from thereduction of bandwidth usage by the at least one program for delivery ofthe supplemental content. If the amount of bandwidth needed for deliveryof the supplemental content cannot be reduced, then no bandwidth isallocated and no supplemental content is inserted into the unicast QAMsignal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram representing insertion of supplementalcontent into a QAM signal using available bandwidth, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing allocation of each of a pool of adpumps by an ad session manager to transcode supplemental content, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram representing components and data flowtherebetween of a system for inserting supplemental content into a QAMsignal using available bandwidth, in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart representing a process for inserting supplementalcontent into a QAM signal using available bandwidth, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart presenting a process for communicating a QAMsignal from a server to a client device, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart representing a process for allocating a dedicatedprocessing device to transcoding of supplemental content based on thecurrent workload of each dedicated processing device, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart representing a process for allocating a dedicatedprocessing device to transcoding of supplemental content based on aservice group of the client device, in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure; and

FIG. 8 is a flowchart representing a process for allocating a portion ofavailable bandwidth of a QAM signal for delivery of supplementalcontent, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram representing insertion of supplementalcontent into a QAM signal using available bandwidth, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. A cable television frequency band100 is divided into a number of channels, such as channel 102. Eachchannel is normally 6 MHz wide and can accommodate a certain number ofprograms transmitted simultaneously. For example, a single 6 MHZ-widechannel may simultaneously deliver programming for NBC, MSNBC, CNBC,SyFy, and USA Network. Some channels are left open for unicasttransmissions of video-on-demand (VOD) content to individualsubscribers. Channel 102 is an example of a VOD channel. A portion 104of channel 102 is dedicated to control metadata. For example, channel102 may contain an MPEG-2 transport stream in a QAM format. Portion 104may contain the Program Association Table, Conditional Access Table,Transport Stream Description Section, and Program Map Section, each ofwhich includes data used by the client device to successfully accesscontent contain in the MPEG-2 stream. Each component of the MPEG-2stream is identified by a program identifier (PID), which the clientdevice uses a filter to ensure that only packets pertaining to aselected program are decoded for output. In the example of FIG. 1 ,channel 102 is a VOD channel and receives VOD content from VOD system106. VOD system 106 transmits VOD content items 108 a-108 e forinclusion in channel 102. Thus, channel 102 contains five VOD sessions110 a-110 e. The combined bandwidth required for transmitting thecontrol metadata of portion 104 and the five VOD sessions 110 a-110 euses the entirety of the 6 MHz available in channel 102.

During delivery of the VOD content, supplemental content such asadvertisements may be inserted into the transmission. Ad server 112 maystore ads in an IP-based or packetized format that is not compatiblewith QAM signaling. Ad pump 114 receives the packetized ad content fromad server 112 and transcodes the ad content into a supplemental QAMsignal in the same frequency band as that of channel 102. VOD system 106may be instructed to reduce, or attempt to reduce, the bandwidth neededfor delivery of at least one of VOD programs 108 a-108 e. For example,VOD system 106 may be instructed to reduce the bitrate of at least oneVOD program. In the example of FIG. 1 , VOD system 106 has reduces thebandwidth needed for delivery of all VOD programs 108 a-108 e, resultingin reduced bandwidth VOD sessions 110 a′ to 110 e′, leaving a portion ofbandwidth of channel 102 available for insertion of supplementalcontent. Ad pump 114 then inserts the supplemental QAM signal into theavailable portion of bandwidth of channel 102. In some embodiments, itmay first be determined whether the ad content, when transcoded into thesupplemental QAM signal, will fit within the available portion ofbandwidth of channel 102. If not, ad pump 114 may determine if thebandwidth requirements can be reduced, such as by lowering the qualityor bitrate of the ad content. If so, ad pump 114 transcodes thepacketized ad content into the supplemental QAM signal having thereduced bandwidth. If it is not possible to reduce the bandwidth, no adwill be inserted, as delivery of the VOD content is prioritized overdelivery of the ad content.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing allocation of each of a pool of adpumps 200 by an ad session manager 202 to transcode supplementalcontent, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Pool 200may be located at a cable television headend. Ad session manager 202 mayalso be located at the cable television headend, or may be locatedremotely from the cable television headend and accessible via acommunication network, such as the Internet. Ad session manager 202 isresponsible for allocating one of ad pumps 206 a-206 h of pool 200 totranscoding supplemental content for various client devices. In somecases, ad session manager 202 may assign or allocate a particular adpump based on current workloads of each of ad pumps 206 a-206 h, so thattranscoding tasks are spread evenly across pool 200. For example, threetasks may currently be allocated to ad pump 1 206 a, while four tasksmay currently be allocated to each of ad pumps 2-8 (206 b-206 h). Adpump 1 206 a would thus have the smallest current workload, and adsession manager 202 therefore allocates ad pump 1 206 a to the task oftranscoding the supplemental content.

In some embodiments, a plurality of client devices being served by pool200 may be divided into a number of service groups 208. Ad sessionmanager 202 transmits 204 instructions to ad pump pool 200 allocatingeach of ad pumps 1-8 (206 a-206 h) to a transcoding task based on theservice group of the client device to which the supplemental content isto be delivered. For example, ad pump 1 206 a is currently transcodingsupplemental content destined for a client device in service groupSG1-QAM-B 210. If another client device in the same service grouprequests supplemental content, ad session manager 202 will allocate adpump 1 206 a to the task of transcoding the requested supplementalcontent.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram representing components and data flowtherebetween of a system for inserting supplemental content into a QAMsignal using available bandwidth, in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure. Client device 300 transmits 302 a request for VODcontent from VOD system 304. VOD system 304 is located at headend 306.VOD system 304 receives the request from client device 300 usingtransceiver circuitry 308. Transceiver circuitry 308 comprises a networkconnection over which data can be transmitted to and received fromclient devices in a cable television ecosystem, such as an ethernetconnection, WiFi connection, coaxial connection, fiber optic connection,or connection employing any other suitable networking protocol. Therequest may identify a particular content item using at least oneidentifier of the content item. Transceiver circuitry 308 transmits 310the request to control circuitry 312. Control circuitry 312 may be basedon any suitable processing circuitry and comprises control circuits andmemory circuits, which may be disposed on a single integrated circuit ormay be discrete components. As referred to herein, processing circuitryshould be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores). In some embodiments, processing circuitry maybe distributed across multiple separate processors or processing units,for example, multiple of the same type of processing units (e.g., twoIntel Core i7 processors) or multiple different processors (e.g., anIntel Core i5 processor and an Intel Core i7 processor).

Control circuitry 312 processes the request and generates a databasequery, such as an SQL “SELECT” command, based on the identifier of thecontent item contained in the request. Control circuitry 312 thentransmits 314 the database query to transceiver circuitry 308, which inturn transmits 316 the query to content database 318. Transceivercircuitry 308 receives 320 the identified content item from contentdatabase 318 and begins streaming 322 the content item to QAM 324 in aQAM format. QAM 324 may also be located at headend 306. QAM 324 receivesthe streaming content from VOD system 304 using transceiver circuitry326. Like transceiver circuitry 308, transceiver circuitry 326 comprisesa network connection over which data can be transmitted to and receivedfrom client devices in a cable television ecosystem, such as an ethernetconnection, WiFi connection, coaxial connection, fiber optic connection,or connection employing any other suitable networking protocol.Transceiver circuitry 326 transmits 328 the VOD content stream to RFoutput circuitry 330. RF output circuitry 330 places a QAM signal of theVOD content on a unicast QAM channel in a session associated with clientdevice 300. RF output circuitry 330 then transmits 332 the QAM signal ofthe VOD content to client device 300.

During playback of the VOD content, client device 300 identifies an adinsertion point in the VOD content. For example, the VOD content mayinclude command tags, metadata, or other indicators that signal anupcoming ad insertion point. In response to identifying the ad insertionpoint, client device 300 transmits 334 a request to ad session manager336 for an ad to be inserted. Ad session manager 336 may be located atheadend 306. As session manager 336 receives the request usingtransceiver circuitry 338, which comprises a network connection overwhich data can be transmitted to and received from client devices in acable television ecosystem, such as an ethernet connection, WiFiconnection, coaxial connection, fiber optic connection, or connectionemploying any other suitable networking protocol. In response toreceiving the request, ad session manager 336, using transceivercircuitry 338, transmits 340 a request to VOD system 304 for sessioninformation associated with client device 300. VOD system 304, usingtransceiver circuitry 308, transmits 342 the requested sessioninformation to ad session manager 336. Transceiver circuitry 338, uponreceiving the session information, transmits 344 the session informationto control circuitry 346. Like control circuitry 312, control circuitry346 may be based on any suitable processing circuitry and comprisescontrol circuits and memory circuits, which may be disposed on a singleintegrated circuit or may be discrete components. As referred to herein,processing circuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on oneor more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores). In some embodiments, processing circuitry maybe distributed across multiple separate processors or processing units,for example, multiple of the same type of processing units (e.g., twoIntel Core i7 processors) or multiple different processors (e.g., anIntel Core i5 processor and an Intel Core i7 processor).

Control circuitry 346 processes the request and identifies an availablead pump to allocate to the request. As described above, controlcircuitry 346 may allocate an ad pump having the smallest currentworkload of a plurality of available ad pumps. Alternatively, controlcircuitry 346 may determine from the request a service group to whichclient device 300 belongs and allocate an ad pump currently servingclient devices in the same service group. If no ad pump is currentlyserving a client device in the same service group as client device 300,control circuitry 346 may allocate an ad pump based on workloads.Control circuitry 346 transmits 348 an allocation command, as well asthe session information, to transceiver circuitry 338, which in turntransmits 350 the allocation command and session information to ad pump352. Ad pump 352 receives the allocation command and session informationusing transceiver circuitry 354 which, like transceiver circuitry 338,comprises a network connection over which data can be transmitted to andreceived from client devices in a cable television ecosystem, such as anethernet connection, WiFi connection, coaxial connection, fiber opticconnection, or connection employing any other suitable networkingprotocol. Transceiver circuitry 354 transmits 356 the allocation commandto control circuitry 358, which processes the allocation command.Control circuitry 358, like control circuitry 312 and control circuitry346, may be based on any suitable processing circuitry and comprisescontrol circuits and memory circuits, which may be disposed on a singleintegrated circuit or may be discrete components. As referred to herein,processing circuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on oneor more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores). In some embodiments, processing circuitry maybe distributed across multiple separate processors or processing units,for example, multiple of the same type of processing units (e.g., twoIntel Core i7 processors) or multiple different processors (e.g., anIntel Core i5 processor and an Intel Core i7 processor).

Control circuitry 358 generates a request for an ad based on theallocation command. For example, control circuitry 358 may generate anHTTP request for transmission to a server. Control circuitry 358transmits 360 the request to transceiver circuitry 354, which in turntransmits 362 the request to ad provisioning server 364. In response tothe request, ad pump 352, using transceiver circuitry 354, receives 366,from ad provisioning server 364, an identifier of an ad to be insertedinto the VOD content. Transceiver circuitry 354 then transmits 368 theidentifier to ad database 370. In response, ad pump 352, usingtransceiver circuitry 354, receives 372 packetized ad content from addatabase 370. Transceiver circuitry 354 transmits 374 the packetized adcontent to transcoder 376. Transcoder 376, using the session informationreceived from VOD system 304 via ad session manager 336, transcodes thepacketized ad content into a supplemental QAM signal in the frequency ofthe unicast QAM signal over which the VOD content is being streamed toclient device 300.

Ad pump 352, using transceiver circuitry 354, transmits a command to VODsystem 304 to reduce the amount of bandwidth used by at least oneprogram in the QAM signal. VOD system 304 determines, using controlcircuitry 312, whether the bandwidth needed to deliver any program inthe QAM signal can be reduced, for example, by reducing the bitrate ofthe content. In some embodiments, ad pump 352 may include the amount ofbandwidth needed for delivery of the supplemental content as part of thecommand. VOD system 304 may divide the amount of bandwidth needed evenlyamong the programs contained in the QAM signal and reduce the bandwidthneeded for each program accordingly. This would result in the leastnoticeable degradation of quality by users consuming the VOD contentbeing delivered in the QAM signal. VOD system 304 then transmits 380 asignal to ad pump 352 indicating the amount of bandwidth recoveredthrough the reduction process. Ad pump 352 receives the signal usingtransceiver circuitry 354 and determines if the amount of bandwidthrecovered is sufficient for delivery of the supplemental content. If so,he supplemental QAM signal is transmitted 382 to transceiver circuitry354, which initializes a transmission path 384 for the supplemental QAMsignal between ad pump 352 and QAM 324.

After preparing the supplemental QAM signal, ad pump 352, usingtransceiver circuitry 354, transmits 386 a signal to client device 300providing tuning information for the inserted ad. For example, while thesupplemental QAM signal may be placed into the same QAM channel as theVOD content, the client device may have to access a different programwithin the channel (i.e., PID) to generate the supplemental QAM signalfor display. Ad pump 352 may inform client device 300 of the PID thatclient device 300 can use to access the supplemental QAM signal. Oncethe client device has performed a corresponding tuning operation, adpump 352, using transceiver circuitry 354, receives 388 from clientdevice 300 a start command, indicating to ad pump 352 that client device300 is ready to begin viewing the supplemental QAM signal. Ad pump 352may also receive 390 an indication that client device 300 has received afirst frame of the program in which the supplemental QAM signal isplaced. In response, ad pump 352, using transceiver circuitry 354,provides the supplemental QAM signal over transmission path 384 to QAM324.

QAM 324 receives the supplemental QAM signal using transceiver circuitry326, which in turn transmits 392 the supplemental QAM signal to controlcircuitry 394. Control circuitry 394, like control circuitry 312,control circuitry 346, and control circuitry 358, may be based on anysuitable processing circuitry and comprises control circuits and memorycircuits, which may be disposed on a single integrated circuit or may bediscrete components. As referred to herein, processing circuitry shouldbe understood to mean circuitry based on one or more microprocessors,microcontrollers, digital signal processors, programmable logic devices,field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), etc., and may include a multi-core processor (e.g.,dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or any suitable number of cores). Insome embodiments, processing circuitry may be distributed acrossmultiple separate processors or processing units, for example, multipleof the same type of processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7processors) or multiple different processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5processor and an Intel Core i7 processor). Control circuitry 394identifies the RF frequency corresponding to the QAM channel over whichthe supplemental QAM signal is to be sent. For example, controlcircuitry 394 may access a table of QAM channels and their respectivefrequencies. Once the proper frequency is identified, control circuitry394 transmits 396 the supplemental QAM signal and an RF tuning commandto RF output circuitry 330, which inserts the supplemental QAM signalinto the unicast QAM signal over which the VOD content is beingtransmitted 332 to client device 300.

Ad pump 352 may receive 398, from client device 300, an indication ofwhether the ad was displayed in its entirety or if the ad was skipped bythe user. This information may be used, for example, to target other adsto the user. Alternatively, if the ad was not delivered successfully, adpump 352 may receive an indication from client device 300 that the adwas aborted. This information may be used for diagnostic purposes if alarge number of ads are indicated as having been aborted.

While shown and described separately in FIG. 3 , it should be understoodthat control circuitry 312, control circuitry 346, control circuitry358, and control circuitry 394, or any combination thereof, may becombined or implemented on master control circuitry at headend 306. Forexample, control circuitry of one or more master control servers maycoordinate the operations of VOD system 304, ad session manager 336, adpump 352, and QAM 324.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart representing an illustrative process 400 forinserting supplemental content into a QAM signal using availablebandwidth, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.Process 400 may be implemented on control circuitry of a master controlserver or any one or more of control circuitry 312, control circuitry346, control circuitry 358, and control circuitry 394. In addition, oneor more actions of process 400 may be incorporated into or combined withone or more actions of any process or embodiments described herein.

At 402, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 394 or controlcircuitry of a master control server) establishes a unicast QAM signalbetween a server and a client device for delivery of content, the QAMsignal having a frequency. For example, a QAM signal targeted to theclient device is placed on a QAM channel reserved for unicast VODtransmissions. VOD content is then encoded as a QAM signal in thefrequency band of the QAM channel so that the VOD content can betransmitted over that channel to the client device. At 404, controlcircuitry (e.g., control circuitry 358 or control circuitry of a mastercontrol server) retrieves packetized supplemental content for insertioninto the QAM channel. For example, supplemental content such as an admay be retrieved from an ad server or ad database.

At 406, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 312, controlcircuitry 346, control circuitry 394, or control circuitry of a mastercontrol server) determines bandwidth can be made available in the QAMsignal to accommodate a supplemental content item. This may beaccomplished using methods described below in connection with FIG. 8 .If bandwidth can be made available (“Yes” and 406), then, at 408,control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 346 or control circuitry of amaster control server) allocates at least one of a plurality ofdedicated processing devices to the supplemental content. This may beaccomplished using methods described below in connection with FIG. 7 .At 410, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 346, controlcircuitry 390, or control circuitry of a master control server)allocates a portion of the available bandwidth of the unicast QAM signalfor insertion of the supplemental content. For example, controlcircuitry may insert a new PID corresponding to the supplemental contentinto a program association table or program map section of the QAMsignal.

At 412, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 358 or controlcircuitry of a master control server) transcodes the packetizedsupplemental content into a supplemental QAM signal in the frequency ofthe unicast QAM signal using the at least one dedicated processingdevice. For example, the packetized data comprising the supplementalcontent is converted into a format compatible with quadrature amplitudemodulation, such as an MPEG-2 transport stream. At 414, controlcircuitry (e.g., control circuitry 346, control circuitry 358, controlcircuitry 390, or control circuitry of a master control server) insertsthe supplemental QAM signal into the unicast QAM signal using theallocated portion of the available bandwidth.

The actions or descriptions of FIG. 4 may be used with any otherembodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the actions and descriptionsdescribed in relation to FIG. 4 may be done in any suitable alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart representing an illustrative process 500 forcommunicating a QAM signal from a server to a client device, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 500 may beimplemented on control circuitry of a master control server or any oneor more of control circuitry 312, control circuitry 346, controlcircuitry 358, and control circuitry 394. In addition, one or moreactions of process 500 may be incorporated into or combined with one ormore actions of any process or embodiments described herein.

At 502, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 312 or controlcircuitry of a master control server) receives, from the client device,a request for content. For example, control circuitry may receive arequest comprising a content identifier, a client device identifier,user authorization key, or any other data needed to establish a VODsession with the client device in which the requested content istransmitted to the client device in a unicast QAM signal.

At 504, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 312 or controlcircuitry of a master control server) retrieves the requested contentfrom a content database. For example, control circuitry may generate adatabase query such as an SQL “SELECT” command using the identifier ofthe content received as part of the request, and may transmit thedatabase query to a content database. In response to the query, controlcircuitry may receive the requested content from the content database.Alternatively, as the content item may be large (e.g., a 2-hour movie),the content database may be communicatively coupled to a streamingcontent server, which streams the requested content at a rate comparableto a rate at which control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 312,control circuitry 390, or control circuitry of a master control server)can process the streamed content. At 506, control circuitry (e.g.,control circuitry 394 or control circuitry of a master control server)encodes the content as a QAM signal in the frequency of the unicast QAMsignal and, at 508, communicates the QAM signal to the client device.

The actions or descriptions of FIG. 5 may be used with any otherembodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the actions and descriptionsdescribed in relation to FIG. 5 may be done in any suitable alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart representing an illustrative process 600 forallocating a dedicated processing device to transcoding of supplementalcontent based on the current workload of each dedicated processingdevice, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Process600 may be implemented on control circuitry of a master control serveror any one or more of control circuitry 312, control circuitry 346,control circuitry 358, and control circuitry 394. In addition, one ormore actions of process 600 may be incorporated into or combined withone or more actions of any process or embodiments described herein.

At 602, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 346 or controlcircuitry of a master control server) identifies a plurality ofavailable dedicated processing devices. For example, a cable headend mayhost a pool of dedicated processing devices (e.g., pool 200). Controlcircuitry may poll a controller of the pool or each individual dedicatedprocessing device in the pool to determine the availability of eachdedicated processing device.

At 604, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 346 or controlcircuitry of a master control server) initializes a counter variable N,setting its value to one, and a variable T representing the total numberof available dedicated processing devices. At 606, control circuitry(e.g., control circuitry 346 or control circuitry of a master controlserver) determines the current workload of the N^(th) dedicatedprocessing device. For example, control circuitry may poll the N^(th)processing device to determine the number of tasks currently allocatedthereto, an amount of available processing power currently being used,an amount of RAM or other memory currently being used, or any other datasuitable for establishing a metric of computer workloads. At 608, thecontrol circuitry determines whether N is equal to T, meaning that theworkload of each available dedicated processing device has beendetermined. If N is not equal to T (“No” at 608, then, at 610, thecontrol circuitry increments the value of N by one, and processingreturns to step 606. If N is equal to T (“Yes” at 608), then, at 612,the control circuitry allocates the dedicated processing device havingthe smallest current workload to the task of transcoding thesupplemental content.

The actions or descriptions of FIG. 6 may be used with any otherembodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the actions and descriptionsdescribed in relation to FIG. 6 may be done in any suitable alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart representing an illustrative process 700 forallocating a dedicated processing device to transcoding of supplementalcontent based on a service group of the client device, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. Process 700 may be implementedon control circuitry of a master control server or any one or more ofcontrol circuitry 312, control circuitry 346, control circuitry 358, andcontrol circuitry 394. In addition, one or more actions of process 700may be incorporated into or combined with one or more actions of anyprocess or embodiments described herein.

At 702, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 346 or controlcircuitry of a master control server) identifies a plurality ofavailable dedicated processing devices. This may be accomplished usingmethods described above in connection with FIG. 6 . At 704, the controlcircuitry identifies a service group to which the client device belongs.For example, several client devices may be receiving unicast QAM signalsof different VOD content simultaneously. The QAM channel used totransmit such VOD content can accommodate multiple VOD programs, eachcontaining a unique program identifier, which is provided to each clientdevice as part of the tuning information for the VOD program. The clientdevices receiving VOD programs on the same QAM channel are considered tobe part of the same service group. The control circuitry identifies theservice group of the client device, and therefore identifies the QAMchannel, and the associated frequency, on which the VOD content is beingtransmitted and on which the supplemental content should be inserted.

At 706, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 346 or controlcircuitry of a master control server) initializes a counter variable N,settings its value to one, and a variable T representing a total numberof available dedicated processing devices. At 708, the control circuitrydetermines whether the service group to which the client device belongsis currently being served by the N^(th) available dedicated processingdevice. For example, the control circuitry may poll or query the N^(th)processing device to determine the frequency or QAM channel on which itstranscoded supplemental content is being transmitted and compare it withthe QAM channel or frequency associated with the service group to whichthe client device belongs. If the N^(th) available dedicated processingdevice is currently serving the service group to which the client devicebelongs (“Yes” at 708), then, at 710, the control circuitry allocatesthe N^(th) available dedicated processing device to the supplementalcontent. If not (“No” at 708), then, at 712, the control circuitrydetermines whether N is equal to T, meaning that the service group beingserved by each available dedicated processing device has beenidentified. If not (“No” at 712), then, at 714, the control circuitryincrements the value of N by one and processing returns to step 708. IfN is equal to T, then the control circuitry may resort to the processdescribed above in connection with FIG. 6 by, at 716, resetting thevalue of N to one, and proceeding to perform the steps of process 600,beginning with step 606.

The actions or descriptions of FIG. 7 may be used with any otherembodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the actions and descriptionsdescribed in relation to FIG. 7 may be done in any suitable alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart representing an illustrative process 800 forallocating a portion of available bandwidth of a QAM signal for deliveryof supplemental content, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. Process 800 may be implemented on control circuitry of amaster control server or any one or more of control circuitry 312,control circuitry 346, control circuitry 358, and control circuitry 394.In addition, one or more actions of process 800 may be incorporated intoor combined with one or more actions of any process or embodimentsdescribed herein.

At 802, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 346, controlcircuitry 358, or control circuitry of a master control server)identifies a total amount of available bandwidth of the QAM signal andassigns the value of a variable B_(T) to the identified amount. Thistotal amount of bandwidth is usually 6 MHz, but the amount of bandwidthavailable varies depending on the number of other VOD sessions beingtransmitted on the same QAM channel. At 804, the control circuitry 804determines an amount of bandwidth B_(S) needed for delivery of thesupplemental content. For example, the control circuitry may estimatethe amount of bandwidth needed based on the volume of IP-formatted datarepresenting the supplemental content. The control circuitry may alsotranscode the supplemental content into a QAM signal and determine theamount of bandwidth occupied by the transcoded QAM signal.

At 806, the control circuitry initializes a counter variable N, settingsits value to one, a variable T representing the total number of programsin the QAM signal, and a variable B_(R) representing the total bandwidthrecovered from the QAM signal. At 808, the control circuitry determineswhether the bitrate of the N^(th) program can be reduced. For example,if the N^(th) program comprises a video stream configured for 1080presolution while the corresponding VOD session is configured to a lowerresolution, such as 720p, a reduction in the bitrate of the N^(th)program would be possible. Alternatively, the control circuitry maydetermine if a more efficient video codec can be applied to the contentto reduce the amount of data, and consequently the bandwidth, needed totransmit the same quality of content. If the bitrate of the N^(th)program can be reduced (“Yes” at 808), then, at 810, the controlcircuitry determines the bandwidth savings B_(N) front he reducedbitrate of the N^(th) program. At 812, the control circuitry adds thevalue of B_(N) to B_(R).

After adding the value of B_(N) to B_(R), or if the bitrate of theN^(th) program cannot be reduced, at 814, the control circuitrydetermines whether N is equal to T, meaning that the ability to reducethe bitrate of each program in the QAM signal has been determined. If Nis not equal to T (“No” at 814), then, at 816, the control circuitryincrements the value of N by one, and processing returns to step 808. IfN is equal to T (“Yes” at 814), then, at 818, the control circuitrydetermines whether B_(R) is sufficient to accommodate the supplementalcontent item. If so (“Yes” at 818), then, at 820, the control circuitryallocates the amount of bandwidth needed for delivery of thesupplemental content B_(S) from the recovered bandwidth. If B_(R) isinsufficient to accommodate the supplemental content item (“No” at 818),then, at 822, the control circuitry determines whether B_(S) can bereduced to an amount of bandwidth that is less than or equal to B_(R).For example, the control circuitry may determine if the bitrate or framerate of the supplemental content can be reduced in order to reduce theamount of bandwidth required. If B_(S) can be reduced (“Yes” at 822),then, at 824, control circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 358 or controlcircuitry of a master control server) transcodes the supplementalcontent accordingly in order to use the reduced amount of bandwidth. At826, the control circuitry allocates the reduced amount of bandwidthfrom B_(R) for delivery of the supplemental content. Otherwise, if thebandwidth required for delivery of the supplemental content cannot bereduced (“No” at 822), then, at 828, the control circuitry allocates nobandwidth and, at 830, refrains from inserting the supplemental contentinto the unicast QAM signal. This prioritizes delivery of the VODcontent over delivery of supplemental content such as advertisementduring periods of highest activity.

The actions or descriptions of FIG. 8 may be used with any otherembodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the actions and descriptionsdescribed in relation to FIG. 8 may be done in any suitable alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure.

The processes described above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted that the systems and/or methods described above may be appliedto, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: establishing a unicast QAMsignal between a server and a client device for delivery of content,wherein the content is included in the unicast QAM signal and comprisesa plurality of programs; identifying packetized supplemental content;reducing a bit rate of at least one program of the plurality of programsof the content included in the unicast QAM signal, thereby reducing anamount of data required to transmit the content included in the unicastQAM signal by a particular amount of data; transcoding the packetizedsupplemental content into a supplemental QAM signal; and inserting thesupplemental QAM signal into the unicast QAM signal using at least aportion of the particular amount of data made available by the reducingof the bit rate of the at least one program of the plurality of programsof the content included in the unicast QAM signal.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein establishing the unicast QAM signal comprises:receiving, from the client device, a request for the content; retrievingthe content from a content database; encoding the content as a QAMsignal in a frequency of the unicast QAM signal; and communicating theQAM signal from the server to the client device.
 3. The method of claim1, further comprising receiving a signal from the client device toinsert supplemental content.
 4. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: retrieving the packetized supplemental content item; andallocating at least one of a plurality of dedicated processing devicesto the supplemental content.
 5. The method of claim 4, whereintranscoding the packetized supplemental content comprises transcodingthe packetized supplemental content using the at least one dedicatedprocessing device.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein allocating theprocessing device to the supplemental content comprises: identifying aplurality of available dedicated processing devices; determining acurrent workload of each of the plurality of available dedicatedprocessing devices; and in response to determining that a currentworkload of a first dedicated processing device is less than a currentworkload of each other of the plurality of available processing devices,allocating the first dedicated processing device to the supplementalcontent.
 7. The method of claim 4, wherein allocating the processingdevice to the supplemental content comprises: identifying a plurality ofavailable dedicated processing devices; identifying a service group towhich the client device belongs; determining whether the service groupto which the client device belongs is currently being served by any ofthe plurality of dedicated processing devices; and in response todetermining that the service group to which the client device belongs iscurrently being served by a first dedicated processing device of theplurality of available dedicated processing devices, allocating thefirst dedicated processing device to the supplemental content.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the content is media content, the methodfurther comprising: causing the content delivered over the unicast QAMsignal to the client device to be played; and during delivery of thecontent, causing the inserted supplemental content to be played.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein reducing the bit rate of the contentcomprises: identifying an amount of data capable of being transmitted bythe QAM signal; determining an amount of data needed for delivery of thesupplemental content; determining whether the particular amount of datais greater than or equal to the amount of data needed for delivery ofthe supplemental content; and in response to determining that theparticular amount of data is greater than or equal to the amount of dataneeded for delivery of the supplemental content, allocating the amountof data needed for delivery of the supplemental content from theparticular amount of data.
 10. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising: in response to determining that the particular amount ofdata is less than the amount of data needed for delivery of thesupplemental content: determining whether the amount of data needed fordelivery of the supplemental content can be reduced to a reduced amountof data that is less than or equal to the particular amount of data; inresponse to determining that the amount of data needed for delivery ofthe supplemental content can be reduced: modifying the supplementalcontent to comprise the reduced amount of data; and allocating thereduced amount of data from the particular amount of data; and inresponse to determining that the amount of data needed for delivery ofthe supplemental content cannot be reduced: refraining from insertingthe supplemental content into the unicast QAM signal.
 11. A systemcomprising: a server; and control circuitry configured to: establish aunicast QAM signal between a server and a client device for delivery ofcontent, wherein the content is included in the unicast QAM signal andcomprises a plurality of programs; identify packetized supplementalcontent; reduce a bit rate of at least one program of the plurality ofprograms of the content included in the unicast QAM signal, therebyreducing an amount of data required to transmit the content included inthe unicast QAM signal by a particular amount of data; transcode thepacketized supplemental content into a supplemental QAM signal; andinsert the supplemental QAM signal into the unicast QAM signal using atleast a portion of the particular amount of data made available by thereducing of the bit rate of the at least one program of the plurality ofprograms of the content included in the unicast QAM signal.
 12. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is configured toestablish the unicast QAM signal by: receiving, from the client device,a request for the content; retrieving the content from a contentdatabase; encoding the content as a QAM signal in a frequency of theunicast QAM signal; and communicating the QAM signal from the server tothe client device.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the controlcircuitry is further configured to receive a signal from the clientdevice to insert supplemental content.
 14. The system of claim 11,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: retrieve thepacketized supplemental content item; and allocate at least one of aplurality of dedicated processing devices to the supplemental content.15. The system of claim 14, wherein the control circuitry is configuredto transcode the packetized supplemental content by transcoding thepacketized supplemental content using the at least one dedicatedprocessing device.
 16. The system of claim 14, wherein the controlcircuitry is configured to allocate the processing device to thesupplemental content by: identifying a plurality of available dedicatedprocessing devices; determining a current workload of each of theplurality of available dedicated processing devices; and in response todetermining that the service group to which the client device belongs iscurrently being served by a first dedicated processing device of theplurality of available dedicated processing devices, allocate the firstdedicated processing device to the supplemental content.
 17. The systemof claim 14, wherein the control circuitry is configured to allocate theprocessing device to the supplemental content by: identifying aplurality of available dedicated processing devices; identifying aservice group to which the client device belongs; determining whetherthe service group to which the client device belongs is currently beingserved by any of the plurality of dedicated processing devices; and inresponse to determining that the service group to which the clientdevice belongs is currently being served by a first dedicated processingdevice of the plurality of available.
 18. The system of claim 11,wherein the content is media content, and the control circuitry isfurther configured to: cause the content delivered over the unicast QAMsignal to the client device to be played; and during delivery of thecontent, cause the inserted supplemental content to be played.
 19. Thesystem of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry is configured toreduce the bit rate of the content by: identifying an amount of datacapable of being transmitted by the QAM signal; determining an amount ofdata needed for delivery of the supplemental content; determiningwhether the particular amount of data is greater than or equal to theamount of data needed for delivery of the supplemental content; and inresponse to determining that the particular amount of data is greaterthan or equal to the amount of data needed for delivery of thesupplemental content, allocating the amount of data needed for deliveryof the supplemental content from the particular amount of data.
 20. Thesystem of claim 19, wherein the control circuitry is further configuredto: in response to determining that the particular amount of data isless than the amount of data needed for delivery of the supplementalcontent: determine whether the amount of data needed for delivery of thesupplemental content can be reduced to a reduced amount of data that isless than or equal to the particular amount of data; in response todetermining that the amount of data needed for delivery of thesupplemental content can be reduced: modify the supplemental content tocomprise the reduced amount of data; and allocate the reduced amount ofdata from the particular amount of data; and in response to determiningthat the amount of data needed for delivery of the supplemental contentcannot be reduced: refrain from inserting the supplemental content intothe unicast QAM signal.